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I’ve been waiting for the Qantas “the reason we fly” campaign to develop, grow wings and go somewhere that made sense, but I’ve come to suspect that what we see is all there is. No, it’s not getting off the ground, other than for the aerial shots.

Does anyone who doesn’t work for the agency that sold it or in the Qantas department that bought it actually think it’s more than dull?

In my humble consumer’s opinion, it could be the most boring airline advertising campaign ever made. Whatever excitement, adventure and pleasure that’s left in flying has been carefully expunged, leaving a pitch that is extremely hard to swallow.

I suspect that the reason Qantas flies is that it’s an airline and that’s the way an airline makes money. It would be more credible to go on about the shape of the wing and thrust and lift and such if you want to get technical.

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Throw in some snappy pictures of nice Qantas people and pretty places and it would at least be an improvement.

At the risk of sounding harsh, it looks like the reason Qantas stuck with the “still call Australia home” campaign for so long was that it couldn’t think of a better idea and still hasn’t. Come to think of it, Qantas went big on Baz Luhrmann’s dud Australia movie too.

Lobbying works better than advertising

Fortunately for Qantas, it seems lobbying rather than advertising works in Canberra. How things have changed for the Flying Roo in the nation’s capital.

From pariah status when he grounded the fleet a year ago, Alan Joyce now has ministers singing the praises of his non-equity Emirates merger. Suddenly there are friends in high places advising the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to let it rip.

Martin Ferguson reportedly very much hopes the ACCC agrees to the Qantas/Emirates deal.

“From an Australian perspective, looking at tourism bringing together that range of opportunities from Europe and the marketing capacity of Emirates in partnership with Qantas, I think that is exceptionally important and that will create…jobs in Australia,” Mr Ferguson said, with all the loquaciousness of a Tourism Minister saying not much but wanting to mention jobs creation.

Anthony Albanese was already on board, the AFR noting the Transport and Infrastructure Minister said a month ago that the agreement should be approved and that Qantas needed to forge such prospects to prosper.

(He might have meant “to survive”, but he didn’t say it. In any event, whatever Albanese says about air transport lacks credibility as long as he puts the Labor Party’s sad political prospects ahead of the national interest by promoting the idea of a second Sydney airport at Wilton instead of Badgerys Creek. Wilton is amidst coalition seats. Badgerys Creek is Labor territory. Far western Wollongong doesn’t need an airport, western Sydney does.)

Questionable tourist angle

The more-tourists-more-jobs angle is being pushed by Emirates itself for the ACCC’s benefit, tossing in the bauble of a $14.3 million marketing joint venture with Tourism Australia. That’s $14.3 million over three years and a joint venture, so, assuming it’s a 50/50 deal, let’s say $2.38 million a year for Emirates spread over all of Europe to mark the effective acquisition of Qantas’ continental market and the gaining of a domestic feeder network, and that’s without going into how much of the marketing is really about Emirates branding rather than encouraging Europeans to visit Australia.

Nice of Tourism Australia to contribute, I suppose. Was that the same mob that thought they had a hot marketing joint venture with Baz’s dud Australia movie? They’re on a roll.

It’s nice for the Tourism Minister to think Emirates/Qantas will create tourism jobs, but until the day the deal was announced, the Qantas line was that Emirates wasn’t about increasing European inbound at all – it was all about taking keen-to-travel Australians overseas and away from the local tourism industry.

Does anyone seriously think there are Italians, French and Germans who have been delaying their trip Down Under until Emirates and Qantas offered codeshare?

It turns out that the airlines that are proving good for creating more visitors to Australia are the Asian low cost carriers. The likes of AirAsia and Scoot are running two-to-one inbound. They’re creating new jobs. If Tourism Australia was interested in reinforcing success, that’s where investing its $7.15 million could earn dividends.

People outside the industry underestimate what a rich outbound market we Australians are. In total dollars, we were the world’s 10th biggest spenders overseas last year, despite there being only 22.7 million of us.

Those higher on the UN Tourism list were all considerably larger countries with closer borders. Our foreign spending soared 21 per cent in just one year. Hoovering up such a rich, keen-to-travel market and gaining access to the fruit of one of the world’s most successful frequent flyer programs is very nice for Emirates indeed. The ACCC just shouldn’t expect it to create many or perhaps any jobs here.

Purely about survival

And the ACCC should also ignore the self-interested claims of Virgin and its allies who claim there’s a serious reduction in competition involved. That’s the Virgin that’s wisely and busily stitching up all the deals it can with foreign carriers.

From the Qantas point of view, Joyce has made clear the deal is purely about survival as an international airline. It’s not a very grand goal, but if that’s all that’s left, pulling off the deal makes it a win.

And it thwarts the danger of Emirates putting a spare plane or two to work on the Australian domestic runs at some stage, as it does now across the Tasman – virtually a domestic route.

How much present and past Qantas management is to blame for the current situation has been canvassed before and there’s not much to be gained by rehashing the past mistakes. However, for those of us with an interest in Qantas’ performance, either as shareholders or frequent flyers, there is mileage in challenging the competitive face Qantas is showing the domestic market.

Virgin's shiny new planes

By way of comparison with the lame “why we fly”, I recently caught what was a new-to-me Virgin Australia TV ad. It was schmick and to the point - lots of bright and shiny VA people, a matching new plane materialising and the implied whisper of efficient, roomy, up-to-date travel. Whatever the truth of the matter, the ad was as bright as the Qantas campaign is drab.

The reality is that the newest Virgin Australia planes do feel roomier and brighter and newer, because they are. They’re not two-decade-old 767s running on the promise of the cabins being refreshed. And those trying to be loyal to the Qantas brand don’t want to think about those delayed and now delayed again 787s that are going to Jetstar instead.

Yet I enjoy flying Qantas despite the advertising. The people and service are pretty good in the circumstances. When fortunate enough to be up the front, the people, service and food tend to be very good compared with any overseas domestic or short-haul experience I’ve had. Before venting about Qantas or Virgin Australia economy, try “first” on an internal US flight.

Virgin Australia continues to lift its game and has become a very worthy alternative. If it keeps lifting, Qantas will find it very hard indeed to maintain its 65 per cent domestic market share “line in the sand”, or in the air. We are fortunate to again have two good full service domestic airlines competing with each other. One of them even knows how to make an advertisement, while the other has rediscovered lobbying powers.

Admittedly, I fly enough to have Qantas platinum status which means the whole booking, seat selection, checking in and lounge process is smoothed. Haven’t cracked VA platinum yet, but it looks attractive, especially as it allows avoidance of some Sydney’s T2 terminal tackiness.

24 comments

As one of the richest countries in the world - demonstrated by the amount of our population that continually fly to other places - we still manage to bitch and whinge about our governments at a level that the rest of the world now find astounding.

I suppose the term "Decadent" would pass right by those waiting in the departure lounge as they send that last tweet before boarding blaming the Carbon Tax for the expensive drink they just bought at the (private monopoly) airport?

Commenter

DC

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 11:35AM

Qantas is the Spruce Goose of the airline world, there soon wont be a runway long enough for this dog of a company to get off the ground. Overheads are simply too high. Baggage handlers earning up to $85k per annum is absurd. Extrapolate wages like that across the company and you can see why they can't make a decent ROE. They have had a near monopoly for ever but with weak management and militant unions, this is the end result. I wouldn't fly or buy Qantas with anyone's money.

Commenter

Brisbane Bear

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 12:04PM

You can see how Qantas has been caught between a rock & a hard place; on one hand it needs a short term fix to keep it viable - hence the deal with Emirates; before it can make it to the long term fix - serving the growing Asian markets.Yes, previous Qantas management decisions were not the best for the airline (but these days most managers are only people with "snouts in the trough") and we can now see the plight Qantas is in.Tourism Australia could spend their advertising money better if it were to invest in the emerging markets of S.E.Asia as this is where real growth will occur and not Europe where stagnation will be with them for many more years to come.Having to make 5-6 round trips a year between Sydney and Bangkok I have experience each of the past and present airlines that services this route over the past 6 years and of late Scoot is by far way in front of BA (ceased servicing this route earlier this year) Qantas (reduced service with less active cabin crew) AirAsia ("pack'em in" tightly) for Value; service and friendliest over the likes of Emirates, etc. Jetstar is one of the better Qantas management decisions of past as this airline has the more competitive overhead cost structure to compete with the Asian airlines. Australia has to be very careful not to price itself out of the market.

Commenter

Franko

Location

Bangkok

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 12:07PM

QANTAS should have been taken over by Australian/TAA rather than the other way around. All the best airline management experience lay with the latter.

I can't help thinking "You're the reason we fly - Virgin" every time I see the Qantas ad.

Commenter

Steve

Location

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 12:18PM

Agreed!

Commenter

AJ

Location

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 1:58PM

As an employee, I totally agree with you Michael - the whole campaign just left me thinking 'meh' so I can't imagine our passengers wouldn't be insipired. The name on a plane was different, unique, but the rest of the campaign was boring. If they had a decent TV ad to support it, it would be different. The song by Daniel Johns is good but if doesn't suit - at the end of the day we are an airline that flies passengers in planes, we seem to want to avoid that point for some reason.

Commenter

Saz

Location

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 12:32PM

Mr Pascoe, you really have become bitter and twisted lately. The rant about the reclining economy seat was woeful - try buying a business class seat, or have the airline seat you behind an empty seat or in an exit row if it bothers you that much. Economy class is unpleasant, but cheap - suck it up Princess and just deal with it like the rest of us! You could also buy a book or an iPad rather than being one of these people that tries to wield a broadsheet in a confined space. While we all like shiny new interiors, slick ads and so on, what I really want and like most about Qantas are the safety standards and customer service. When things go wrong they take care of their customers rather than being shown the front door and told to fend for yourself - unfortunately this is hard to put into ads or make look sexy. Accept that you're getting what you pay for and get on with your life to focus on the important things. I don't understand why it's a national past time to bitch about Qantas. Please stick to financial and business aspects and leave the travel advice to someone else.

Commenter

John

Location

Date and time

October 12, 2012, 12:33PM

"While we all like shiny new interiors, slick ads and so on, what I really want and like most about Qantas are the safety standards and customer service."

Which were the reasons I've abandoned them ... amongst others. Customer service was out-the-door 10 years ago, despite the premium they require for flying with them ... and a series of incidents over the last 10 years in their aging fleet has not exactly instilled confidence in their safety record.